Imagined empires: a history of revolt in Egypt

Through a microhistory of Qina, a small province in Upper Egypt, this book investigates the history of five world empires that assumed hegemony in this province over the last five hundred years. It explores modes of subaltern rebellion against these imagined empires that failed in achieving their professed goals and brought about environmental crises to Qina province. As the book deconstructs myths about early modern and modern empires, it shows how these global hegemons claimed to introduce forms of modernity to the colonized peoples of Qina, particularly through market-economy measures, but their modernity only dispossessed peasants, repressed laborers, and further subjugated women.